Madison Wisconsin's Estate Planning Blog

Bankruptcy can be incredibly stressful for anyone to go through. Once your matter has been closed, you may wonder what the next steps are. To ensure that you protect your remaining accounts and property as well as yourself and your loved ones, we encourage you to consider an estate plan as your roadmap into the future.

Bankruptcy may be one of the last things on your mind when you are creating an estate plan. Fortunately, the number of bankruptcy filings has declined over the past several years, but there were still a whopping 544,463 bankruptcy filings in 2020.^[1] What happens to your estate if you file for bankruptcy protection but die while still in bankruptcy? What if one of your beneficiaries is in bankruptcy or is soon likely to be? None of us knows what the future holds, so you should consider these important issues in your estate plan, even if the possibility of bankruptcy seems far-fetched right now.

A qualified terminable interest property (QTIP) trust is an estate planning tool that married couples can use to minimize uncertainty about the future and maximize certain tax advantages. Since no one can predict how much they will own at the time of their death, which spouse will die first, whether the surviving spouse will remarry, or what the estate tax rate will be when they die, a QTIP trust can help deal with and minimize these uncertainties without the need for a crystal ball.

Parents strive to make their children feel equally valued as reflected in the fact that, when setting up an estate plan, parents typically divide their accounts and property equally among their children. But while parents strive to treat their children the same, they simultaneously acknowledge that children have different needs at different times. And these needs do not always correlate with perfectly equal dollar amounts.

Should something happen to you and your accounts and property pass to your minor children in equal shares, there may not be enough money for each individual child’s expenses. Almost certainly, one child will require more funds than another. Instead of simply dividing your accounts and property equally among your children, you can place accounts and property in what is known as a pot trust or common trust with instructions for your trustee on how to spend the money and property on behalf of all the beneficiaries.

Wills and trusts are the two basic legal instruments that people use to pass accounts and property on to their loved ones at death. Although a revocable living trust is often used in place of a will, the two are not mutually exclusive. You can have both a will and a trust, and in fact, a special kind of will—known as a pour-over will—is commonly used alongside a living trust.

A pour-over will adds peace of mind to your trust-based estate plan. If you neglect to transfer any accounts and property into a living trust during your lifetime, or fail to designate the trust or anyone else as a beneficiary at your death, the pour-over will ensures that those assets end up in the trust after you die. If you do not set up a pour-over will to go along with a living trust, any money or property that does not pass to the trust or other beneficiaries at your death and therefore remains outside the trust at the time of your death could be treated as though you had died without a will and will pass to your heirs under the default laws of your state.

A popular estate planning tool that has long been used effectively may be facing new challenges under the current administration in Washington, DC. The family limited partnership (FLP) is an estate planning tool that allows families not only to transfer significant amounts of their wealth to succeeding generations while reducing estate, gift, and income tax liabilities but also to achieve several other important estate planning goals.

A home is often one of the most valuable items of property that someone will ever own. When it comes to ensuring that your home passes to the individual or group that you intend, there are a variety of ways to legally make that happen. The life estate is a less commonly used method.

Thank you for all that you do for us. We understand that being the first one on the scene can come with many different risks. We are dedicated to protecting you and your loved ones from the different types of emergencies that may pop up during your life. The following are some important questions for you to consider that can help you prevent your own family emergency.

It is okay to not be okay. Removing the stigma of mental health starts with realizing that many people—about one in five of all US adults--are affected by mental illness. Understanding this fact can lead to more people getting the help they require, not only by seeking guidance from a mental health expert, but also by planning for the future with mental health considerations in mind.

A common misconception people have about life insurance is that they only need to designate their spouse, child, or loved one as the beneficiary of the policy to ensure that the life insurance benefits will be available to the beneficiary when they die. Life insurance is an important financial and estate planning tool, but without certain protections in place, there is no guarantee that your beneficiary will receive, or keep, the benefit from your insurance.

In a constantly evolving world, having the flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances is a valuable trait. But is flexibility less important in estate planning than in other areas of life? In many situations, you may not want your estate planning documents to be flexible after you have signed them. If your planning could be changed on a whim, there is a risk that your intent can be defeated by someone who does not understand or respect it.

This risk is the primary reason why, when a trustmaker dies, their revocable living trust becomes irrevocable and can no longer be amended. This trust feature is important for providing certainty to the trust administration process. Other types of trusts become irrevocable upon their creation to obtain certain tax or asset protection benefits available under the law. But what happens when, after a trust has become irrevocable, a situation arises that appears to undermine or conflict with your intent as the trustmaker? Are you stuck?

Thankfully, no. A variety of tools exists to help handle unforeseen circumstances that might have negative consequences. Decanting is one of them.